Great video again. Just to say - the EQ and speed arrangement goes back through all the earlier models and was only tied on the subsequent Logic 7 (which I have). The reason was the Wearite deck was made separately from the amplifier. Ferrograph and Vortexion used them and you could buy them for home construction. It was this design philosophy dating back to 1948 which brought about their demise - the Super 7 was out around the time of the much quieter, more convenient, Revox A77. The Ferro has three speeds and better torque in its favour, but had bad press from the rubber parts dissolving rapidly owing to chemical instability. Sheet metal logic remained in the Akai and Sony offerings, but at 15ips with 10.5” reels with a flywheel and associated idlers, these were clunky and old fashioned in comparison. They are mechanically happier horizontal, if you have the space. BBC modded Logic 7s were balanced with type A jacks but are mostly wrecked owing to the felt pads making head contact on wind. I relieve mine on fast wind with a cotton bud. Having said all that, nicely aligned they sound great! Which is why anyone should like them :)

A Very Big Thank You to you Colin, your reel to reel transfer for the HMS Ark Royal Veterans was great quality for such an old reel. Your kindness is much appreciated. If ever I can return the favour, it would be a pleasure.

Fascinating video. Strange that they designed an 'interlock' on the speed and EQ controls. They could have saved some design complexity (and those precious pennies in mass production!) and just left it out. It'd be a very rare situation, but maybe setting the EQ 'wrong' might be useful if a tape was recorded with the wrong EQ? On the other hand, that ff/rew knob - that's a shuttle control, way before professional video cassette editing decks came along with it - I'd never heard of that on any audiotape format. Also, I agree with you on the tape threading/lacing - it bothers me when I see a video of an R2R with the end of the tape sprouting out of the takeup hub, flailing about. Aside from the visible mess as it plays, the end of the tape/leader ends up all bent up. Oh, and it's good to know that that left guide on the Akai is an idler rather than a fixed guide - my opinion of that design of Akai transport just improved. But those still have the problematic potmetal cams....

Good to have an expert to repair/mod your high end equipment :-). There are less and less people around now that actually know what they are doing. I'm used to hiss being on the power amp side, amplifier noise is always there at one fixed level. The old trick for headphone users is to put a resistance in the right and left channel, you have to drive the headphones a little harder. All old obvious stuff lol.

Wow..you have many reels to reels :0

Nice video as always. I did wonder why you had a ferro rather than a Revox B77 or something :) interesting though. I remember a friend of mine that used to service them in the 70's saying that they were a little plagues with problems when they were first released. Nice to see one in use, and yes, that speed wind arrangement is lovely. Reminds me of a Sony APR-5000 that I used to love.

@video99couk

3 жыл бұрын

It's mainly because I could buy one, serviced and modified with the heads I need. But I do miss my Tascam 52, that was a lovely deck before it broke down.

Very good

That Ferrograph is an interesting deck, different than my Teac/Tascams and Otari decks, and very different from the Ampex and Studer decks at work. I could see that pressure pad design being murder on the heads, but it would make the deck do quite well with old Acetate based tapes which tend to cup.

@jasonhaman4670

Жыл бұрын

Ooohhh, hadn't thought about cupped acetate tapes. Excellent point.

Top!👌👌👌

You should modify the felt pads to be engaged one at a time for either 1/2 or 1/4 heads to reduce head wear.

@video99couk

3 жыл бұрын

I suppose that might be worth doing. Probably a bigger benefit would be to disable them both during REW/FF.

What voltage is the LT fuse supplying? Is the LT or 24V supply useful for installing internal headphone amps if they weren't installed originally?

@video99couk

3 ай бұрын

Sorry, I can't answer that, I don't have schematics.

Nice decks. Although I'm not keen on AKAI. I've had a few different models and they all seem to suffer with earthing problems. A few also have too many gimmicks, Like cross head recording and a stupid capstan sleeve to change the speed. I've got one with built in cassette and an 8-Track. It's been in bits for over a year, as it's a nightmare to fix. Too much to go wrong, that has gone wrong.

@video99couk

2 жыл бұрын

My only two complaints with the 1721L model are: Amplifier is a little hissy. Back tension is not properly regulated like the Ferrograph. I actually had earthing problems with the Ferrograph until I had it upgraded to balanced outputs.

I wish I had a "forward/rewind cueing search" as that machine have on all the audio players. I miss the knob thing and the speed/inertia effects on the audio.

The ferrograp have tree motors and tree heads and these akai have two heads an one motor... but the sound of these aka is great .. like at ferrograp :)

hi i am in need of a service info for a akai mg14d rest of deck is ok i have been testing all the pcb it's the power unit would be better if i can find any info service book i missing key info there over 100 parts need to be changed i have a lot of the tapes as well would save a ton of time i am having a hard time on the net bob

The secret of the akai is a heads ...;)

How do I remove the deck from the casing

@video99couk

Жыл бұрын

Not something I've ever done on either of the machines I cover in this video.

Teac is very good

Salutes of argentins

How much did the service/modification costs?

@Capturing-Memories

3 жыл бұрын

I don't think he is in the position to disclose such information, You can call the service provider and get a quote directly from them.

@video99couk

3 жыл бұрын

@@Capturing-Memories Correct, it's probably not for me to say. Furthermore there were some minor repairs which weren't covered in this video (a spring on the half track head pressure pad had pinged off, was the main one).

hi this is the first time i seen a working ferrograph the EMI BTR4 OTARI MTR 12 has the spool button level it was wear on the head block put me of getting this model me first 10'5 was a sony tc755 1989 i got it later i picked up a RS1700 £350 needed all speeds on one deck got a otari mtr later needed it for editing and fixing 8 track tapes the best akai is the 2 head 1800ss deck there's a full track to kill all the recording when in quad mode like you some times deck are not used for some time i was talking to the TASCAM ninja john he know me well i left alot not work right if you have alot of decks you can get a big service bill if the units are not checked i know there's some men with 80 plus reel to reel deck like jeff the bigger decks take alot of room up big time i have a cat she love the warm of the motor after i had one on jumped 381 is the best for money out of all the 1 inch deck video's is your bag i love tape deck

I have two speakers akai sw30 jet setream sistem

Those tapes are stored tail out and need to be put on the right hand side and rewound before playing

@video99couk

7 ай бұрын

I sometimes get tails out tapes sent to me.

@unequally-tempered

7 ай бұрын

@@video99couk Pros store tails out so that print through is an echo rather than a deja vu or deja entendu

hi some time ago well before i made a video on a soundcraft 760 unit in side the main power unit pepper my cat got on top of the deck as it was warm still i got 5000 hits plus all be could of pepper was in the video she turned the top in to her bed A CAT IN ANY KIND OF VIDEO WILL GET THE HITS my mate is in reading filming club he said the same thing i am going to try what lee my very old mate said put pepper in more of the video's i am making in the lock down MASK FREE no masks in the video;s later on it will hit the hit's i watch all the hours in all your video's bob's bit's

The ferrograp is english ..is very good like a the revox

Head wear on the Ferro's was atrocious because of the pressure pads, their use in fast wind and no auto tape lifters. Dreadful combination. With decent tape a good 3 motor design doesnt need pressure pads, and with modern back coated tapes pressure pads scrape against the rough back coating. Ferrograph were slow to update their designs so were justly wiped out by such as Revox A77 with all direct drive motors, no pressure pads, auto tape lifters but optional cueing, much lighter and more compact etc. The more upmarket Revox A700 used a 3 speed direct drive capstan motor with optional varispeed, quickly swappable headblocks and ... full servo tape tension. I modded my A700 so tape tension is easily adjustable for playing various tapes. My first decent machine was a Ferro Series 5 which I used for many years. But after servicing the Revox machines (A77 on) it was hard to look on Ferros in the same way.

@video99couk

3 жыл бұрын

Adjustable tension, now there's a useful mod for sticky tapes.

@oldgoody1

3 жыл бұрын

@@video99couk I find increased tension useful for playing cupped old acetate tape (not too much or the tape will snap) and reduced tension good for thinner base tapes to prevent stretching, and being more pliable they dont need so much tension to conform to the head contour. But hard to find just one reel machine which is good at everything.

@video99couk

3 жыл бұрын

@@oldgoody1 Cupped tape fortunately is not a problem with the Ferrograph! Yes, I do find it handy to have two machines, and would like another.

Studer

Sony